Gender Bias in Offspring Preference: Sons Still a Higher Priority, But Only in Men — Women Prefer Daughters

In most developed countries, gender equality and neutrality have been widely promoted and embraced— through public policy—as a socio-cultural goal since at least the mid-twentieth century. Accordingly, we predicted that a population of highly educated youth from a relatively wealthy developed country (mostly students from a Canadian university) would display little or no significant gender bias with respect to offspring preferences. We rejected this hypothesis based on data collected in an online survey from over 2000 respondents. Participants were asked whether they had any preference regarding: (i) the gender of their firstborn child; (ii) the gender ratio of their offspring; or (iii) the gender of an only child. In all cases, there was a significant offspring gender preference, but the direction of bias depended on the respondent’s gender; males significantly preferred sons whereas females significantly preferred daughters. These data show that strong gender biases in offspring preferences are still conspicuous, even within segments of modern societies where we might least expect to find them. We offer interpretations of these results in the context of evolutionary theory – as products of selection for genetic (biological) and memetic (cultural) legacy.